Expert advice

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Expert advice - other useful records

Although BMDs, census and parish records are usually to be found as the first, and most fruitful, first steps to building your family tree there are many other record sets in existence that will help to prresent you with both an idea of what life was like for your ancestor and also provide new avenues of possible research - particularly when you feel that you may have hit a brick wall in your current lines of investigation.

Some other key record sets on findmypast include:

Newspapers

The newspaper collection on findmypast spans the period 1710 to 1953 and includes millions of pages of local newspapers from across England, Wales and Scotland.

A quick search for your ancestors will reveal if they ever made it into the news. As the newspapers are local, you'll be surprised at how easy it is to find mentions of your family.

Our extensive military collection will help you to locate your ancestors who served in World War One and World War Two.

You can also search a range of historical lists and roll calls, including records for the Battle of Waterloo, as well as army BMDs (not found in the civil indexes) and consular records for those who may have lived abroad.

Although these records make for more sobering research in comparison to their birth and marriage antecdents, they are nonetheless important records that can help open new avenues of research and unlock key events in your family's history.